A Simple Recipe For Homemade Bread

Today, I thought I would share with you a very simple recipe for homemade bread. I’ve been making bread since I was a teenager, and this is the recipe I’ve always used. I like trying all kinds of recipes for bread, but when I’m in the mood for simplicity, this is the one I go for.

I used to make 5 loaves of bread before I got married. That’s how many bread pans would fit in our oven at one time. Now I only bake 1 or 2, since there’s only my husband and I in the house and we aren’t big on sandwiches.

With a bowl of Chicken Noodle Soup, it is absolutely divine. No need for dessert that day, because whenever I bake a loaf of bread, we always enjoy a warms slice with butter and jam. There is nothing more wonderful.

Ingredients:

1 cup warm water, (110-115 degrees)

2 1/4 teaspoon active dry yeast

2 Tablespoons sugar

2 Tablespoons oil

3 -3 1/4 cups flour (unbleached all purpose flour or bread flour)

1 teaspoon salt

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Turn it OFF.

Warm up the water until it’s a nice, bath water temperature. Sprinkle in the yeast and sugar. Mix it until the yeast and sugar dissolve. Set aside for about 5 minutes, until the yeast becomes foamy. Meanwhile, combine the flour and salt in the large bowl of a standing mixer. Pour in the liquid ingredients, adding in the oil too. Start on low speed and mix the dough with a dough hook attachment, until the it comes together.

Gradually increase the speed and knead the dough for 7-10 minutes. Coat the dough in a little bit of oil, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place in the warm but turned OFF oven. Let the dough rest for about 20 minutes. Knead the dough again, for about 3-5 minutes.

Coat it with oil again, place in the bowl, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and return to the warm oven or wrapped in a heated blanket or any other warm place in your home. Let the dough rise until it doubles in size, anywhere from 40 minutes to 1 1/2 hours. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

When the dough has doubled, place the dough on the counter and shape it into a rectangle. Roll it up tightly, starting with the short side. Place it seam side down into a greased loaf pan. Spray the top of the bread with oil. Cover loosely with plastic wrap or a towel and set aside until the dough doubles once again, 30 minutes to an hour. Bake in the preheated oven for 23-30 minutes.

Warm up the water until it's a nice, bath water temperature. Sprinkle in the yeast and sugar. Mix it until the yeast and sugar dissolve. Set aside for about 5 minutes, until the yeast becomes foamy.

Meanwhile, combine the flour, and salt in the large bowl of a standing mixer.

Pour in the liquid ingredients, adding in the oil too.

Start on low speed and mix the dough with a dough hook attachment, until the it comes together. Gradually increase the speed and knead the dough for 7-10 minutes.

Coat the dough in a little bit of oil, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place in the warm but turned OFF oven. Let the dough rest for about 20 minutes.

Knead the dough again, for about 3-5 minutes. Coat it with oil again, place in the bowl, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and return to the warm oven or wrapped in a heated blanket or any other warm place in your home. Let the dough rise until it doubles in size, anywhere from 40 minutes to 1½ hours.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

When the dough has doubled, place the dough on the counter and shape it into a rectangle.

Roll it up tightly, starting with the short side.

Place it seam side down into a greased loaf pan. Spray the top of the bread with oil. Cover loosely with plastic wrap or a towel and set aside until the dough doubles once again, 30 minutes to an hour.

I wouldn’t say one or the other tastes more “Russian”. The American Sandwich bread uses milk and butter instead of water and oil, so it has a similar texture to a sweet yeast bread, if you know what I mean, except it’s not sweet. It’s hard to explain.

Made this bread today and it came out great! So delicious! My 2 1/2 and 18 months old boys couldn’t stop eating it. There is still few little pieces left for my husband when he comes back from work Thank you so much for all of your amazing recipes. You are the best!

Nope, not this bread. I have another recipe that I make with whole wheat flour. It’s a multigrain bread, and I love it too. You can try this bread with whole wheat flour, just substitute part of the all purpose flour for whole wheat, not the full amount, or the bread will be too dense and hard.

This bread is absolutely wonderful!! I’ve been trying to find a recipe for bread that is similar to the kind my aunt makes and I must say, this one might be better (shhhh )… It’s like perfectly fluffy but not too fluffy and soft and yummy! With everything! Honey, jam, butter, for sandwiches!!! WOW!!!! OK, you probably got the point– it’s sooooo goooood!!! My husband said, “I don’t think we’ll ever be buying bread anymore. This one is delicious!”

What kind of flour do you use? I never made home made bread before for all of your other recipes I used Canadian flour. We also bought “bread flour” but I never used it. Which one would you recommend? Thank you

Mariya,
I’ve never used Canadian flour, so I’m not sure what it’s all about. I recommend unbleached all purpose flour. That’s the one I use for all my baking. Bread flour will work great for this recipe too.

I use Canadian flour, basically its just flour made in Canada. My mom and some other people I know always prefer this flour when baking. One thing though, when using this flour you need to decrease how much you use. Like for this bread recipe, I needed only slightly less than 3 full cups of flour, otherwise the dough gets too tough. I haven’t bought other type of flour in a long time. This flour is usually sold at Winco and Cash & Carry.

I’ve never seen Canadian flour sold here and we don’t have any of those stores in our area. As a blogger, I like to use ingredients that are accessible to most people. That’s not always possible, but I do my best. I’m glad it worked out for you.

I just made this bread yesterday night. It is not hard at all and tastes really, really, really good (get the point?). My husband also liked it alot. I am wondering though, when the dough is stretched into the rectangle, before rolling it up, if it would be ok to sprinkle cinnamon and sugar, so that it bakes into the bread. Safeway has this french toast bread, where you can see the cinnamon swirls on each slice. Do you think that will work with this bread? I might have to try it myself next time (very soon) when I bake this again.

Ok, so I did it. Today I made the bread again, and this time I put in the cinnamon and sugar on it before I rolled it. Oh, and I added extra tablespoon of sugar to the recipe because my intention was to make it taste kind of like safeway french toast bread. It was the right idea, the bread turned out beautifully. My son especially liked this new version with the cinnamon. One thing though, I didn’t roll it too tightly, so there is a swirly gap in the bread when cutting it. But besides that, put a little honey on it, and you’ve got your dessert. Thanks Olga for posting your recipe, this is definately a keeper.

p.s. you should put a disclaimer on your site: If anyone who cooks often from this website can’t fit into any of their regular clothing again, Olga’s not to blame, and will not be paying your new wardrobe.

That’s great to know, Oksana. I’m glad your cinnamon bread turned out so well. I would have used a bread dough that is based on milk and butter instead of water, though.
That disclaimer is a good idea, thanks! You made me smile!

Ok, so I have to write another comment again. Since my first post, I’ve made this bread like 6 times now and will be making another one before the week is out (can’t make a double batch because I only have one bread pan). The house smells like a bakery several times a week.
To anyone who was like me before, the idea of homemade bread seems impossible, or that you have to have a bread machine to make good bread, don’t give up. Seriously, every time I made this bread, turns out the same awesomeness(is that a real word?). Wow your friends and family.
Olga, I can’t thank you enough, my husband and kids equally love this bread. Is there an easy recipe for whole wheat bread too? My husband wants to expand my cooking skills, lol.

Yep. You can freeze it. However, I don’t advise storing any kind of bread in the refrigerator. The bread will dry out and stale much more quickly in the refrigerator. I usually store bread at room temperature, with in a bag or wrapped in a clean kitchen towel.

Hi Olga ,
You are great in the kitchen ! You love to cook and it shows:)
I love this bread. It is Rustic Italian,
I made it many times and agree it is absolute delish. I do wander why it is need to be rolled?
Can it be just be put in the form?
I do like the idea of the sandwich slice, and before I just made a round loaf.

Well, I did it in glass pans the same day and I doubled the recipe, turned out awesome! Family loved it! I was making artisan bread previously and kids told me they like this one better! Thanks for the recipes!

I baked this bread last night and made a sandwich for my husband with it. He called to tell me how good it was. I didn’t put anything new or different than what I usually do. Secret ingredient is the yummy bread! Such a keeper for anyone who wants a great sandwich bread! Thanks Olga.

Hello Olga,
My name is Julia, I made this bread about 1/2 year ago. How can it be, 1 cup of water for 3 cups of flour? The mixture turned out very very dry and I had to add an extra 1/2-1 cup of water. The bread turned out delicious but 1 cup of water is too little. Am I missing something? Or did I misread the recipe?
Thanks

Hi Julia!
Nope, you didn’t miss anything. The ingredient measurements are all correct. This is the recipe I use all the time and it always turns out great:). You can try adding 1/2 cup less flour, if you’d like.

I usually only make the dough in the bread machine, in which case just put all the ingredients in the bread machine and let it do the work. Then bake as instructed. If you actually want to bake it in the bread machine, I can’t help you there. Follow your manufacturer’s instructions, Maria.

Hi Olga! I love this bread. Ive made it in the past no problem. I made a double batch the other day and the dough, once kneaded, became like rubber. I don’t know what I did differently. I thought maybe the yeast is expired but it foamed in the water so I thought it’s ok. I would appreciate your insight if you know what could cause this? I’m not sure what I did wrong. Thanks so much again!

Hi Marysya,
I’m sorry it didn’t work out for you. It’s very hard for me to say what could be the issue, since I wasn’t with you while you were making it, and you yourself say that you’re not sure what you did wrong. Sorry. Did you let it rise enough?

Hello! I called my mom to see if we could troubleshoot and save the dough. She says I most likely used water that was too hot and scorched the yeast so to speak. I activated some more yeast in lukewarm water and let it rise an extra time and got excellent results. When I thought back to it, I had always used warm water but here mixed a cup of boiling with a cup of cold (since I doubled the recipe) and it was probably too hot. Hopefully that can help someone if they run into the same problem. Thanks for your reply!

Glad you stopped by! I'm Olga. A nurse by night, a wife, mother and homemaker by day, I love to cook and entertain. I grew up with Russian food and when we came to America, fell in love with so many other cuisines. I share great recipes with detailed instructions and step by step pictures.

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Glad you stopped by! I'm Olga. A nurse by night, a wife, mother and homemaker by day, I love to cook and entertain. I grew up with Russian food and when we came to America, fell in love with so many other cuisines. I share great recipes with detailed instructions and step by step pictures.